Biden Helps Launch Low-Key Re-election Bid

Vice President Biden joined grassroots supporters in kicking off President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign in New Hampshire Monday, but you might not have known it at first blush.

The understated venue; the Marriott Residence Inn in Portsmouth, was matched in tone by the vice president's remarks and it seems that's the way the White House wants it... for now. "[W]e have a lot on our plate and so it's gonna be a while before we're out doing the kind of active campaign you're accustomed to us doing [like] two years before the last election where we were out there a year and a half-- almost every single day, there was another Democrat, a leading Democrat in this state ginning up our support," said Mr. Biden.

The entire 2012 launch was a low-key affair in which the president himself made no on-camera appeals. The White House says since there's so much governing to do, for now, his supporters will have to get the ball rolling.

"[T]he president is focused on his work for the American people that he was elected to do, and that's what he does everyday and that's what his staff here is doing," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

The Obama campaign arm is under construction in Chicago, says Carney, "in part to allow him to focus on the work he needs to do from the White House for the American people."

The vice president seems content with tasking supporters to begin recapturing the spirit of Mr. Obama's first campaign. "It's not hyperbole to suggest that you are the heart and soul, the spine, sinew of the 2008 campaign. That's literally stating the facts," Biden said.

"So, reach out again. Reach out-- it's not too early -- to your friends and your neighbors. Start calling, start organizing. And once that starts, I know you all too well, but there's no stopping you all. But now is the time. Now is the time to begin."

For much more on the Obama 2012 launch, click here.